So you’ve put together an awesome product or service, you’ve got the marketing materials ready and you’re ready to show the world what you’ve been working on. You release the product and… no one takes notice. What gives? Does no one like your product? Is it your marketing that failed? While there could be a number of reasons why a product fails, one of the leading causes is simply due to poor timing.
As a business, your goal is to fight for the attention of consumers. Even if you’re a big name brand with a fantastic product, you still need to time your release so that it has the best chance of catching the attention of your consumers and beating out your competitors.
So in this article, we’re going to take a look behind the importance of timing your product release and also what you can do to improve your chances of success.
1. Understanding your market and important dates within your industry
Every market has its own important dates and schedules. For gifts and presents it’s usually around Christmas and Easter which you’ll get the most business. For video games, the period before Christmas is often crunch time and for fashion-based businesses, seasonal releases are incredibly popular and the most common time for consumers to rearrange their wardrobe.
Understanding the most important dates in your industry is the first step to finding success in smarter timing of your promotional campaigns and product and service releases.
2. Scheduling your promotional campaigns to ease your stress
Releasing a new product or service is undoubtedly stressful. Even the thought of releasing your initial promotional materials can cause doubt to start creeping in, and managing the initial campaign can be a time-consuming task especially if it involves engaging with your audience or the media.
As a result, you can drastically cut down on the time you spend releasing and managing your promotional materials by planning this in advance.
The better you plan your release schedule the more likely you’ll be able to manage your product without feeling like you have to play catch up or that you need to deal with multiple contacts and concerns at once. Scheduling a post on social media is simple and can help take a lot of stress off your shoulders.
3. Identifying the perfect release conditions
Part of your sales strategy should be dedicated to identifying the perfect release condition for your product. You should be releasing your product at a time that is perfect for your particular type of product or service.
This includes examining what your competitors are doing and when they’re releasing products so that you can either directly compete with them, or avoiding larger companies that are likely going to overshadow you with their higher marketing budget.
The perfect release conditions will ultimately depend on your product, your grasp on the market and also special holiday dates and periods of the year which you can take advantage of. It’s difficult to define these conditions hence the importance of building a sales strategy at an early stage.
Do you already have a seasonal sales strategy? Let us know what you would suggest.